Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya visited the temple with his family members, and performed puja.

Several state ministers, members of parliament, state legislators, leaders of various political parties and top officials also made offerings at the temple to mark the occasion.

The stream of VIPs caused much inconvenience to commoners.

Thousands of devotees were standing in three to four-km long queues. Though a separate queue was arranged for women, they were still waiting for four hours for their turn to offer ‘bonalu’ to the goddess.

The festival will conclude on Monday with ‘rangam’ (forecasting the future for next one year) followed by a colourful procession of the goddess on an elephant.

The organisers expect that over 15 lakh people will participate in the festival this year.